SFPUC workers investigated for porn, gambling on city computers

More than two years after five Planning Department employees were ousted for emailing porn to each other, a group of San Francisco Public Utilities Commission employees are now under investigation for using city computers to share porn and visit online gambling sites, city officials said.

More than two dozen employees in two water-distribution units were being looked at in the probe, although some of them now appear to have had no or only peripheral involvement, such as receiving a pornographic e-mail from a colleague and not reporting it, sources familiar with the case said.

About a dozen employees, including some in supervisory roles, appear to have had more serious involvement, those sources said.

Mayor Ed Lee called the allegations “very disturbing.”

“It’s a misuse of (public) property for all the wrong reasons,” Lee said. “We’ve got to (send) a strong message to those that are involved: This is not to be done.”

The internal investigation into the conduct is expected to wrap up within two weeks, with the city then meting out discipline ranging from a reprimand to termination, depending on culpability and depth of involvement, public utilities commission spokesman Tyrone Jue said.

“It’s deeply concerning anytime you have public employees abuse the public trust,” Jue said. “It undermines the work we’re doing on behalf of the city.”

It was unclear if any of the conduct unearthed so far would warrant criminal charges, Jue said. The pornography involved was not child porn, he said.

A whistleblower first brought the gambling matter to management’s attention in late spring or early summer, and the subsequent investigation revealed the porn, a source knowledgeable about the case said. The suspected gambling now appears to be rather minor, sources said.

The city initiated five terminations, with some of those employees resigning before they were fired, according to the city’s human resources department. An arbitrator later overturned one firing but found that discipline was warranted and did not order back pay. The employee did not return to work for the Planning Department, but now works elsewhere in the city. Seven employees were suspended for various lengths of time, and six others received formal reprimands, a human resources official said.

Badiner, who was not believed to have sent the emails, but rather to have received them and done nothing to stop the activity, had fought his ouster.

Now that a similar situation has arisen at the Public Utilities Commission, Lee said it was the city’s job to ensure “that it doesn’t happen again.”

“You give somebody a computer, and you allow them the freedom and access to the internet. They’ve got to handle that responsibility,” Lee said. “You can’t abuse it. This is all public property. If they have any idea that this is their own property, they’re dead wrong.”